Sense of Security launches new free Active Directory Recon tool

The tool provides businesses with important insights to help them meet compliance standards and identify security threats, "which is necessary now more than ever in the wake of the Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme."

The tool extracts information from the Active Directory (AD) and "generates a cohesive report in Microsoft Excel, providing businesses with valuable information regarding the effectiveness of their AD configuration".

We're reminded that "Weak passwords, unauthorised user access, outdated/dormant user accounts and weak policies are all common catalysts for security breaches," and that "ADRecon will help organisations identify these shortcomings and address any compliance issues present in the directory".

The company also states ADRecon "makes it convenient for security professionals to access information pertaining to their AD environment, by providing a generated raw report, as well as visual aids such as graphs which summarise valuable information to assists CIOs in making security decisions".

ADRecon highlights include:

The tool extracts information from a user’s Active Directory (AD) and generates a report in Microsoft Excel, outlining the effectiveness of a business’ AD configuration.

ADRecon helps organisations identify shortcomings such as weak passwords, unauthorised user access and dormant user accounts, which are all common catalysts for cyber attacks.

Compliance issues such as generic accounts and lockout policies, dormant users and users whose passwords are stored with reversible encryption can all be identified by the reports

The tool is extremely simple to use and can even be used by people with a non-IT background, such as the CEO.

Prashant Mahajan, the tool author and Consultant at Sense of Security said the tool will add invaluable convenience to security professionals, including IT administrators and CIOs.

Mahajan continued: We wanted to make this tool as easy as possible to use, which is why there are no complex steps involved - even somebody with a non-IT background such as the CEO can run the script.

“Being able to access a holistic view of your AD environment will help businesses save time, money, and assist them in identifying potential security threats before a hack occurs. This will prove to be particularly useful since the introduction of the Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme, which puts threat identification and security at the forefront of the law.”

ADRecon "gathers the information using read-only queries and the report generated can assist with identifying issues regarding user accounts, privileges and host management. This can be used to discover deficiencies, enabling remediation and serving as evidence to demonstrate compliance requirements are met.

"Compliance issues such as generic accounts and lockout policies, dormant users, and users whose passwords are stored with reversible encryption can all be identified by the ADRecon reports. This information can then be used to tidy up an Active Directory, by removing users, computers and DNS records no longer required."

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